Please consider the last time you worked out. I don't judge you if that far-away memory isn't too vivid. Now we can begin.
Reasons why exercising stinks:
It hurts while I exercise
It hurts after I exercise
It even kind of hurts before I exercise
Reasons why exercising CAN rock:
I feel powerful before you exercise
I feel powerful while you exercise
I feel powerful after you exercise
However, if you just exercise a bum-load all at once and then stop, you see little to no progression. You just feel sort of good about yourself and then even worse and more remorseful when you decide to give up again.
If you are consistently following through with your commitment to exercise, there's a constant force that pushes you toward improvement, and it becomes a whirlwind of motivation that grows the more you exercise.
Every minute you spend, each drop of sweat that slips down your neck, the additional effort put in to use proper form rather than just sludging through it... It's all crucial to achieving your potential. Exercising would seem silly if you didn't understand the end result--Not just ripped biceps and shredded abs (whatever the heck that means...I just think of shredded cheese, and that sounds like a painful thing to do to my abs). The end result is a healthy lifestyle, a happy and confident mentality, a rigorous and motivated approach to life itself, and all kinds of other benefits. These aren't just short-term results.
Now, here's the no-brainer connection to life. Instead of "exercise," place the word "life" in there. (By "life," I mean to live meaningfully. For me, that means to live the Gospel of Christ and to follow Him. For you, it may mean something different, so follow along accordingly.)
It hurts while we "life." It would seem silly for us to have chosen to "life" if we didn't understand the long-term goal (eternal joy for me). The more me follow through with the commitment to "life," the greater motivation we have to keep going strong. Using bad form in "life-ing" isn't going to produce nearly the outcome that using good form would. The more we understand and look toward that long-term goal, the better we'll understand what it really means to "life" and why it's worth it to give ALL of our effort to doing so.
*Sorry about all the made-up words.*
